Monday, September 12, 2011

Need to Reinterpret Islamic thought by Muslim scholars.

http://youtu.be/V-WPrr6pDL4
Whenever a debate arises about any rape or sexual harassment issue, the Jamaat e Islami always takes a stance where its members instead of debating start accusing the questioner with  blasphemy. The danger of this kind of accusations in public is that some criminal kills the guy  and there is no redressal. This happened in the case of the previous governor of Punjab. This kind of irresponsible behaviour by a leader of such a large political party shows their true mindset. Here he argues with the questioner that you are not Muslim and you are talking against the Prophet of Islam (May Peace Be Upon Him) when the questioner is just presenting another Muslim Ulema point of view for the argument.This is the state of serious debate on issues in Pakistan where the discussion on law and human rights are never held on a serious basis. There are 72 sects in Islam. Religious scholarship has taken back seat and for the last 700 years no serious debate and work has been done to address the issues of law, society and human rights. People like Maulana Maudoodi who had the great capacity for scholarship have died and in the near future I see no scholars or universities where such a task will be undertaken.
Here in UK, a new book is published by an eminent scholar who is also an advisor to the Pope , To be Human in Islam by Damian Howard. This book will have great influence on future opinionin the West and I am sad that no Jamaate Islami or any Pakistani Muslim Ulema and scholars will read this. All the future work of this scholar will also be not read and debated by this author and so a great chance to debate and influence any future thought and opinion by Muslims will be lost.
The issues of serious reinterpretation, debate, contextualization of Islamic and Quranic thought in the modern times are lacking in Muslim scholarship and if coming from the West by a serious and influential Jesuit priest , the Muslim input maybe lost forever. It is sad that Muslims in Pakistan do not understand the gravity of the situation and are busy in bickering amongst themselves and are wasting time in superficial and false aggression.